Arts & Crafts

Cloud Dough Sensory Bin

Today was a Pro-D day so I had both girls at home. Sometimes that’s a recipe for boredom or chaos, but today we decided to make some cloud dough instead. Cloud dough, also called moon sand, has the unique property of being moldable and crumbly at the same time. It’s a sensory treat for kids of all ages – fun to scoop, mold, build with, or just squish between your fingers!

Cloud dough, also called moon sand, has the unique property of being moldable and crumbly at the same time. It's a sensory treat for kids of all ages - fun to scoop, mold, build with, or just squish between your fingers!

Cloud dough, also called moon sand, has the unique property of being moldable and crumbly at the same time. It's a sensory treat for kids of all ages - fun to scoop, mold, build with, or just squish between your fingers!

Cloud dough is very simple to make. It’s basically an 8:1 ratio of flour to oil, so 8 cups of flour and 1 cup of oil. These proportions are easy to divide or multiply for smaller or bigger batches. Adjust to 4 cups of flour and 0.5 cups of oil, 12 cups of flour and 1.5 cups of oil, etc. Either baby oil or any type of vegetable oil works. If your kids are still putting things in their mouths, then by all means stick with non-toxic vegetable oil.

For today’s batch, I left half of it white and made the other half a pretty purple using some Wilton’s icing gel I had left over in my cupboard. You can also use colour powder or even Kool-Aid packets. (Water-based food colouring doesn’t work very well due to the oil content.) Just add the ingredients together and mix thoroughly. I start with a fork then finish with my fingers to get the oil and any colouring evenly distributed throughout the cloud dough.

I used a large plastic bin for our cloud dough and added some measuring spoons, silicone cupcake liners, a small measuring cup, and a cookie cutter I found at the bottom of the junk drawer. Anything goes for this scooping and molding sensory bin!

The kids loved it! I swear they would have spent all afternoon digging and molding and playing if we hadn’t had to leave for Kay’s karate class. Because I was actually thinking ahead, this bin had a lid that I popped on so I could put our cloud dough away for later. You can expect your cloud dough to last a long time when stored in a sealed container away from moisture.

Be warned this can get messy, but then again, so are kids, right? On a warm day, I’ll put the bin in the yard and let the kids make their mess out there. Otherwise, it’s nothing a quick vacuum and a bath won’t fix. No biggie!

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